Friday, February 23, 2007

February 21, 2007 at 10:34 pm · Filed under About AGLOCO, Member Tools

I wrote a comment other day that addressed exactly the type of question Members sometimes get in trying to recruit others to AGLOCO, namely: “AGLOCO sounds too good to be true. Why am I getting paid without putting anything into it?” Here is the quote from my previous blog that answers this point:

Asad Khalid said, “Well i have some concerns about AGLOCO. Though i badly want this to work, but it seems too good to be true. I can also recruit people into joining Agloco as its free. But this is the thing that worries me. Its hard to believe that you’re going to be paid without ‘investing’ or putting something in it.” —— AGLOCO Official said, If being “too good” is our only problem, I think we’re in great shape!

Joking aside, seeming “too good to be true” is probably the number one reason people DON’T sign up for AGLOCO. It seems strange to “get something for nothing.” The truth is, you’re not getting something for nothing. You’re giving the Viewbar a small share of your computer monitor, which we (and apparently many advertisers) consider extremely valuable. You are also choosing us as your partner for commissions, referrals, and fees accumulated through everyday browsing. So, instead of some other middleman making this money, AGLOCO makes it. We win, you win, and the advertisers/companies win for getting your business.

Also, if you decide to refer other Members and build the community, you get more because YOU have built the community and provided it with its most valuable resource: more Members. By providing value to AGLOCO, we provide value back to you for your efforts.

So, essentially, AGLOCO doesn’t cost you any money to join, but you are “putting something in it” to reap the returns AGLOCO will provide you. If it’s worth it to share about 3/4-inch of your screen with the Viewbar and possibly to take the time and effort to build our network, you have earned every cent of your AGLOCO payout.

Value Proposition 1: You have Viewbar on screen, we pay you for it.

Having a Viewbar on your screen while you are actively browsing the Internet offers benefits to AGLOCO, advertisers, and Internet companies. The internet advertising industry is booming, as companies are trying many different ways to get their information in front of your eyes. As such, every inch of real estate on your screen is valuable (as demonstrated by the “million dollar homepage” last year). The Viewbar will show a targeted text ad, and advertisers are more than happy to pay AGLOCO for the opportunity to put that in front of you.

Another reason you get paid is because having an active Viewbar on your screen means that you are asking AGLOCO to be your commission partner. Many things you do on the internet make money for middlemen without you realizing it. AGLOCO never requires Members to do any of these things, but activities such as joining communities (such as eBay and MySpace), searching (such as on Yahoo and Google), downloading free software (such as Adobe Acrobat), and making purchases (such as on Orbitz and Amazon.com), will in many cases generate money for a middleman. By having an active Viewbar on your desktop, you designate AGLOCO to be your middleman. This makes AGLOCO money and, in return for that, AGLOCO pays you back. So, in that way, having an active Viewbar on your screen makes you money for doing what you would ordinarily do.

Value Proposition 2: You build the network, we pay you more.

I talk about this a little in a previous post:

Why does AGLOCO use a referral system? “The most valuable part of AGLOCO is its Members. By referring others to AGLOCO, you provide them with value and for that, AGLOCO thinks you should get some of that value you provide.

It makes sense. Think about YouTube. The first, most active users were on the site when the software was buggy and there were few videos available, but their Membership (and referrals to others) is what made the site a success. When it was sold for $1.65 billion, how much of that did these first users see? Nothing. With the AGLOCO referral system, Members get more for building the network.”

Should you choose to build the network, you are ‘sticking your neck out’ to build the community and make it valuable. You are ‘paying’ with your time and effort, as well as risking your reputation, in convincing the people you know to join AGLOCO. You know that it could fail. If it does, you have spent a lot of time working for nothing in return, and you might look a little silly to the people you referred into the system. Not everyone is willing to take that risk.

However, for those who do take that risk, there will be significant rewards if AGLOCO succeeds...

...from the Agloco company blog....

If you are still reading this and still believe in your future on theinternet, go sign up at Agloco now. Be a difference maker. This will succeed and I will be a part of it. I bought some business cards, and will be starting a website mainly for this program. I have three blogs now and I have been on the internet marketing scene for almost three years. I will cross promote this with adsense and other publisher programs . I don't have a big list so this will truly be grass roots for me.Let me say that there are people with over 5000 recruits and more; more power to them. I have two direct recruits and am already in the top 45% ! One Agloco member, has only 80 direct referrals and over 1500 total. Yes the company pays like a 1/4 share infinity wide and four level deep. Bill Gates is behind the concept as well; of paying users for their feedback. The viewbar operates seemlessly in the background; similiar in a way to Google's Adsense publisher's program. Agloco is discussed some more at this site

FeedbackI remember providing feedback way back when the Firefox browser was in true beta, FF .8 and .9 versions. At 2.0 now, this browser has taken over more than 100 million users from Internet Explorer. Different web 2.0 applications such as video sites and social networks are enabling better connectedness . Tagging is hot, and everyone from Delicious to downloader applications etc. are sharing and bookmark by tagging . The internet changes very rapidly, and it's for the better. Head over to Agloco...catch the wave. This may out to be like buying shares of Ma Bell in the 60's for pennies on the dollar. Then just tell your friends, preferably your college kids who may decide to get a huge list just for shizzle and giggles. You too, bro and sis.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Reliable web hosting is vital for anyone attempting to earn money with a business website.

Choosing a host for your website is not easy when you are an Internet newbie and don't really know bandwidth from Band-Aid. What selection criteria do you use? If you are a total newbie, about the only thing you will know how to compare is price but if you do a search for web hosting you will have ads coming at you for all prices from $10 per year to $25 per month. Should you go for the most expensive on the basis that you get what you pay for or should you go for the cheapest because saving money is a priority while you are getting your business running?

The first thing to rule out is free web hosting. There are many great free resources to be found on the Internet including excellent anti-virus and anti-spy ware software. Free hosting is fine if you have a hobby website but, if you are running a business online and wish to achieve credibility with visitors and search engines, free web hosting won't do the job.

I discovered the hard way that cheap web hosting is not necessarily the bargain it might seem. When I started looking for hosting for a new website, I already had top class hosting that had come with my first website. There was an option to add on further domains for an extra $5 per month. That was cheap enough but I thought it would be a good idea to have my new website hosted completely separately (you know, the old eggs in one basket caution).

When I started checking around, there seemed to be millions of web hosts all offering what (to my untrained eye) seemed to be the same thing but at wildly varying prices, so I settled on a cheap hosting package. The cost was £1 per month (which was about $1.70 in those days) and I certainly got what I paid for!

At first everything was fine: I paid up, they hosted my website. The trouble is, you don't realize you have bought rubbish hosting until things start to go wrong.

The first sign that all was not well came a few months later when I was unable to locate my website. I raised a support ticket and waited. Four days later came the reply "everything seems ok now". Four days of downtime without a sensible word from support made me feel more than a little uneasy.

Things seemed fine for a while after that but then another problem arose: when I tried to log into my control panel all I got was a message telling me the license fee had not been paid. This time the reply to my support ticket was quicker, it only took two days. Unfortunately, however, it was completely unhelpful. The reply was "It seems to be a site-wide issue". Was I supposed to feel better because the whole site was messed up and not just my bit? They must have got round to paying the license fee because after a few more days, login was available again.

After that, I wanted to move to a new host but I had never moved a website before and assumed it would be really difficult and technically challenging (actually it is extremely simple). As a result of this fear my website remained where it was.

The crunch came when my domain name came up for renewal. In response to an email from the hosting company, I visited their website to make the required payment. Their PayPal link and credit card options did not work and there were several error messages showing on the pages I visited.

Emails to their support and billing departments went unanswered. My only means of arranging payment was via their website, so I kept trying. Each time I visited, there were more error messages, nothing worked and it began to look as if the site was actually melting bit by bit. It seemed the company had just packed up and left their website to self destruct.

Enquiries revealed that the only way I could renew my domain name ownership was through the hosting company because they had registered it on my behalf and they retained control of it. As they could not be contacted, there were only two options available. The first was to pay an agent a pretty hefty (and non-refundable) fee to try to contact the hosting company and negotiate the purchase the domain name from them. The second option was to lose the domain.

When you have to choose web hosting, the first thing to look for is quality of support. To keep prices low, the easiest way for the company to economize is to provide sub-standard support. Forget the offers of unlimited bandwidth, hundreds of email accounts, spam filters and other freebies. If support is non-existent, give the company a miss no matter how good their other terms might seem.

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You will find ideas about how to earn money working from home and useful home business resources at Elaine Currie's Work At Home Directory http://www.HuntingVenus.comFor more articles about online writing visit http://www.elainecurrie.com/writingtips